A Blow To The Heart
by ElevenandTen
Summary: When Bruce attends a small party with the wealthy owners of land and business in Gotham, he meets someone he'd thought he'd loved and lost long ago... All due to the Joker's plan he'd tried so hard to push from his mind. *More Coming!*
1. Chapter 1

A Blow To The Heart

Bruce Wayne stood straightly in front of his bedroom mirror, Alfred absently dusting the bureau reflecting beside him. He tweaked his tie and shifted his broad shoulders. Tonight was supposed to be a wonderful dinner party among fellow first-classman… But he didn't like the feeling he got whenever he glanced outside his window and out at Gotham. The city seemed dusted with dry dread, and guessing by the silence provided by Alfred, he assumed he could feel it too.

Finally, he broke the heavy stillness.

"Master Bruce, you wouldn't neglect your invite to this occasion just because of a hunch, would you?"  
"No, Alfred, at least, I would hope I wouldn't have to."

Stepping down the stairs, he glanced at the parlor. Then at the clock, pin pointed at 10:47…  
He sighed. Tonight, Gotham could wait. "Bruce Wayne" was still a person with a life he needed to live.  
But nothing felt quite right…

.

On the way to the party, he couldn't help but try and resist the urge to have Alfred turn the car around, and then live the rest of his night as Gotham's dark vigilante. Unintentionally, "Bruce Wayne" had become more of a mask than "Batman" ever could be. He felt more comfortable in his cape and utility belt than a dry-cleaned suit from the most expensive retail shop in town. He'd much rather be fighting a maniacal plot of "The Joker's" than cooped up in a two-hour long conference at Wayne Tower. It was tiring wearing a mask to conceal a secret identity that wasn't so much a secret, or at least until he'd been arrested all those years ago. When revenge was all he could think about. That's when he'd revealed an immovable part of himself he didn't even know existed.  
Most people knew him as "The Batman"; the masked mystery.  
When through it all, it was really Bruce who was the man in disguise.

.

Alfred clicked open the passenger door and jolted Bruce from his thoughts.  
Sliding out of the car, he observed the glamour of the diners and the scenery behind them.

This was "Bruce's" territory.

"Here we go…"

.

Of course, a bright smile lit his face as always, champagne fizzed in long-stemmed glasses, and he conversed with the guests gaily; the usual. And just as normal, he'd find more than one woman's interest in him. None of this would lighten Bruce's reputation. But none of it really mattered now.

Suddenly, he noticed a dim glimmer of yellow light impressed in the sky outside. Against the night-fallen clouds, the bat-signal loomed over the city.  
His staring drew the attention of his female attendant, who gasped as she followed his gaze. Her sharp breath caught hold of the other guests' attention, and they all stared, awestruck, at the glowing plea alight in the sky.

Bruce tried to leave the party without gathering too much attention, but failed miserably when he bumped into a young lady wearing a netted, black-brimmed hat, knocking her off of her balance. He steadied her and took a step back, apologizing for his hastiness. She peeked out from under her red hair, and Bruce's heart jumped into his throat.

"Andrea?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2- In Love With a Bat

*more coming (still)*

.

She glanced up to meet her addressor's eyes. He stared back in awestruck silence, and as did she. Her eyes brimmed with tears, and she ducked under her mourning hat. Still thinking he'd been dead, she'd been mourning when she'd come to Gotham. Now, her visit had taken a completely unexpected turn.

Bruce saw her crying beneath the veil and brought her outside. Completely forgetting about the symbol still shining above them, he slowly took her into his arms and held her.

He couldn't believe he was holding Andrea… After all this time thinking she was dead! Eventually, he realized that she'd stopped crying, and that she had been looking up at him. She was remembering how he'd looked at her when he found out what she'd done… how she thought he'd hate her forever….. and then studying his face now. He wasn't angry. He appeared relieved. Well, she knew he'd loved her, but she would've never known how much. Now she didn't have to wonder.

It was written in his eyes.

Reluctantly stepping back, she chuckled through freshly fallen tears.  
Bruce, his hands holding hers, asked her curiously, "What?"  
"Oh nothing," She giggled, "I'm just in love with a bat is all."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Gotham was drenched in opaque darkness.

Bruce couldn't help but wonder if that's what drew the masterminds, created them; molded them into the dark, superficial entities that plagued the night. Perhaps sinister geniuses were drawn by the lack of daylight, or the abandoned buildings where they could hide.

Andrea must have been thinking the same thing.

"Perfect hiding place, a warehouse," she said, shattering the stillness as it whirred past them, skittering along the rooftops.

"This city has many crevices, places the police never even _think _to look." He explained," Where the criminals breed and multiply. Like this."

They stopped short of the edge of an unguarded building, and Bruce seized her elbow defensively. Before them loomed the warehouse, graffitied and tailored with drowning paint, smiling red acrylic spray, and littered with broken windows and strewn debris. A ringing laugh resounded from the front of the structure, and a dash of red flipped headlong down the side pavement, followed by a darker figure. The Joker, and his new villainess, Harley Quinn.

Bruce turned to face Andrea, an unreadable expression set by his taut jaw line.

"That's why I'm here."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

He caught her eyes for a fleeting moment before she ripped away her gaze. Behind her cloaked irises was something she wasn't telling him. She had been secretive before, but it didn't seem to be the same. He couldn't place it. She'd seemed fine before. But with his preoccupation of seeing her again and Joker on the loose, he supposed he just hadn't noticed.

The night cast deep shadows on Bruce's face. The angularity of the blackness caught Andrea's attention, and she glanced over at him.

A concerned Bruce stared back, his foot balanced against the roof edge.

"Are you okay?" His eyes glimmered; despite the lack of light. Her eyes glinted back at him, her expression indecipherable.

"You know Bruce, I do love you. You'll know that, even after I'm gone…" Her tears streamed down her masked face and pooled into the leather at her collarbone. He longed to brush them away but he wasn't about to release his grip and let her get away again.

"Andrea, what are you saying?"

"The reason I came cannot be unfulfilled. It's for my father. For me and my selfish reasons. You know all about self-fulfilling missions, don't you?" she smiled sadly, wishing she hadn't seen the hurt in his eyes.

He stepped aside, taken aback by her sudden change. She said she was leaving.. Again. But that she loved him?

Was it _all _a façade?

She grappled the warehouse ledge that towered above the Joker, and flipped off the rooftop.

Bruce, invisible in the shadows, stood bleeding again. He'd let her in… Time hadn't taught him a thing. He let down the walls he erected for everyone else… Except her. His eyes narrowed slightly in the cast of his cowl.

Batman flung out his grapple with unneeded force, extending it to the other side of the warehouse entrance. He sprang into action, and swung towards unknown territory on it's line.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Andrea had pinned the girl against the old drainpipe. By ripping off the clown's headdress, she could strip the cloth to quickly slip it around her wrist and efficiently tie her to the rusty base. The entire time Quinn screamed, 'Puddin'! Run Mista J! Run!"

When Andrea whipped around, The Joker was leaning against a telephone pole, a bemused expression playing on the edge of his fixed smile. The black fire she'd tried to escape for so long was threatening to overtake her again. The turmoil inside her heart was no match for the pulsing and blinding rage overtaking her thoughts and bending her will. Cold regret that had seeped into her mind eclipsed with the dark hatred for the men who murdered her father… The twisted remnant of a man that stood before her caused her glare to deepen and fixate.

She swallowed the chaos churning in her throat and listened to the deafening ring in her ears, feeding off of her ire. She strode to the pole, but not before muting the screeching Harley with the remainder of her hat. Joker's smile dimmed a bit as Andrea slowly moved toward him.

"Napier."

His eyes darkened and his lips curved downward, morphing his smile into a red grimace.

"It seems Batsy has a girlfriend!" He trotted around the pole, regaining his smile and cackling with emphasis.

Her baleful glare impaled him.

Silencing that horrid laugh was the only thing on her mind, which was now completely and irrevocably beyond reason. She reached into Bruce's spare utility belt that adorned her waist and grasped her lifeline. The tool she'd laid there secretly would be the only thing to ever quench the retribution she had wanted for so long. She knew Bruce would never forgive her. So be it. This was something she had to do.

When The Joker caught a glimpse of the metallic barrel of a gun, he sobered.

"The Bat would never approve!" He said, wagging his finger at her.

Andrea planted both feet firmly apart, and held the gun with both hands.

"Batman's not here."

A muscular arm was suddenly wrapped around her throat, constricting her before she could react. A familiar voice whispered darkly in her ear.

"Think again."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Andrea, startled, struggled out of Batman's hold, and blindly pulled the trigger. Bruce neatly dodged the bullet and flicked her wrist around. She cried out and dropped the handgun, but quickly slid her foot and kicked the gun away from his grasp.

He flung his arm around her waist and tried to subdue her. She slipped out of his grasp and landed behind him. He heard two sharp clicks and flew around, his cape billowing around his threatening frame.

Harley Quinn had Andrea in a headlock, the gun had been kicked to her during the struggle, and she gauged the loaded point into Andrea's temple. Tears tracked down their faces. Harley's undoubtedly caused by the endangerment of her precious Joker.

With warning, Bruce was on his knees, his legs kicked out from under him, a knife pressed to his neck.

"How's it feel Batman?" Joker snickered, "To be on the other side of the glass-where we all are?" He burst into sudden, manic laughter. "Where _you _put us?!" His cackling grew evil and loud, both bristling and disheartening the already injured Bruce.

Just then, when he caught Andrea's tearful gaze, bright light washed over them, flooding the warehouse with fluorescence. Bruce tore his eyes away from Andrea's, and he breathed heavily at the sound of the Commissioner's voice. He would have to turn them in to the police when the arrived. All three of them…

He hung his head.

_Oh Andrea…_


End file.
